About the Project

EXPLORING THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE IN WINDSOR-ESSEX

It’s hard to imagine what the local healthcare scene will look like 10 years from now, but Windsor Regional Hospital wants to show you the possibilities. We’d like take you all along for the ride as we explore some of the most modern and state-of-the art hospitals out there, but that’s not possible. Instead, we’re bringing some of the newest and most innovative healthcare facilities right to your computer screen.

We invite you to join us for a virtual tour, as we discover together what the future could hold for healthcare in Windsor-Essex. Allison Johnson is our tour guide for the trip. The Manager of Communications at Windsor Regional Hospital, and former CBC news reporter, is passionate about the Windsor-Essex community and looking forward to finding out what could be in store for our healthcare system.

That decision is a long way off, but when we do start flushing out the details of what a state-of-the-art facility will look like, we will certainly consider all opportunities to improve the patient experience.

When will any real public consultation begin? There were numerous complaints that the survey did not ask the questions that mattered to residents and the public appearances did not allow for in-depth discussion.

Now that the RFP is out it seems that this process is being left to chance, up to the land owners. As a resident, how do I suggest a location for the hospital? This is public money and we’re leaving it up to land owners to come forward with their land. So unless a number of land owners are able to come together and respond collaboratively to the RFP, which is highly unlikely, good sites that consist of a number of sites will NOT be reviewed or considered! This eliminates many opportunities that may be the best site.

There needs to be an alternate way for citizen groups to add potential locations to the list of sites being reviewed, locations that may require the purchase of a few plots, or even expropriation, because at this time, there is NO way.

Thanks for your comments. There have been several opportunities for members of the public to have their say and provide their feedback throughout this process. We’ve held two Live Town Hall Broadcasts, invited members of the public to provide feedback on the criteria for site selection and we invited community members to submit an application to be considered for a spot on the Site Selection Subcommittee.

This is in addition to the many community groups we have met with in the past few months. Last week CAMPP, the group you’ve said you are a member of, spent time discussing these issues at length with Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj and Dave Cooke, the Co-chairs of the Steering Committee overseeing the project. You have also had the opportunity to share your concerns directly with Mr. Musyj on another occasion.

Experts who have been involved in many hospital development projects, tell us the site selection process that is being followed is very unique because of the open and transparent nature. As the Co-Chairs indicated in a guest column published in the July 24 edition of the Windsor Star – it is impossible to please everyone when making such an important decision. That being said, they are confident that the process will result in the most accessible location for patients in Windsor-Essex, and a location that will offer patients outstanding care in a state-of-the-art hospital for decades to come.

New green field sites may be easier but there are none central to the population and on majour traffic arteries.
An option – Relocate Zalev scrapyard to an industrial area. 40 years ago this was the outskirts of town but look at Google map now. Its in the middle with easy access to 401 and highway 3
The auto plants that fed it are mostly gone and they just bring metal into Windsor and process it. Clean it up and you have 100 acres exactly in the center of the city and Howard, Dougal and EC Row right there. Might take a year to clean up but there should be some Fed/Ont environmental or greyfield grants available and this would remove the eye sore (rust bucket image) we drive by and replace it with something Windsor can be proud of when others drive by

While it may be better to build new rather than renovate why does it have to be a massive single site. Two smaller hospitals designed to current ideal hospital standards under a single administration would better serve the community. Its bad enough that we are down to two emergency room locations from four, but reducing to one and putting it in a remote location is distressing. There will be lots more miles and longer average trip times for the ambulances. If quick access to an emergency room is not that important why do we need flashing lights and sirens on emergency vehicles?

I would also agree. Keep the hospital in the city of Windsor! Stop the sprawl!!!
I live in Leamington and love having our community hospital within our town centre. So convenient and within walking distance. Cannot imagine what it would
be like not to have our hospital here in town!

Hospitals need to be accessible and that means near people, where they live. This is especially true for those who need hospitals the most– older people, people with disabilities, other vulnerable populations. That mean transportation to and from a new hospital should be very conscious of patients arriving on foot and public transit. Also, many who use hospital services have the least economic resources. Make it easier and nearer those people. Designing a hospital– which is mostly people who are ill– should do everything possible to be near those people and their families — not a monolith that takes forever to find and even longer to the right person in the right hall at the right time… think human scale, not mega super scale.

NO to big-box health care “solutions”! If you are looking to increase auto dependency, further exacerbate our municipal infrastructure and gut our local communities – big-box health care is the way to do it! We deserve livable, walkable and functional neighborhoods to combat suburban isolation and the resulting increase in obesity rates. The rest of the developed countries have figured this out. Why are we even proposing this?!?!?!?

I am also concerned about the location of the new hospital. We learned 50 years ago when Devonshire Mall was built, that removing established anchor businesses is detrimental to the neighbourhoods they vacate. Windsor is finally showing some promise with initiatives that promote walkability, but building the hospital outside the city will only increase sprawl and transportation issues. This is not the kind of planning that smart cities undertake! It seems to me that your decision to locate the hospital in a greenfield area was made without consultation with our urban planners, because they would have been the first to point out that this is move is completely contrary to current urban trends. The decision certainly didn’t include public consultation, which is a blow to democracy in the area.

I’ve read about how we don’t just need a new hospital, we DESERVE a new hospital. I’m furious whenever I see new developments being built in the outskirts of our city while the core suffers and the “old infrastructure” empties, rots, and eventually is torn down. I don’t want to move to the suburbs to be close to this mega-hospital, I want my city to serve me. That’s what I DESERVE.

It appears that a “greenfield” is the preferred location to build, but a site like that would be nearly impossible to find within the city centre. Unless the choice is made to curb suburban sprawl and locate this project in a place that draws development TO our city centre rather than AWAY from it, this will be just another story about how Windsor’s bad decisions have gutted our downtown and destroyed our potential.

Kristen! You hit the nail on the head. The role of a “city” is the centre of culture, commerce and activity in a region. Since the early beginnings of civilized culture we’ve been organizing ourselves in urban centres with agricultural lands and villages surrounding the city. We’ve been doing this for thousands of years up until about 1950 when we decided to sprawl outward. The idea that village and town dwellers need to travel into the main urban centre to access commerce and services has not changed until we tossed everything we know about urban planning in the garbage and now city dwellers suffer as services are pulled from the city centres to provide convenience for those who reside in the surrounding villages and towns. Locating the hospital in Windsor is not about privileging one group over another its simply about good urban planning. If we want our city to continue to decay and our agricultural lands to used for low density sprawl then locating new services outside of the city is the way to go… but if we want to preserve our farm land, if we want Windsor to continue to develop into a vibrant prosperous urban city then we really need to talk about locating this hospital in the city centre.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Although a greenfield is preferred for a new location, at this point we have not made any decisions. Choosing a location will be part of the next stage in our planning process and the community will no doubt be affected by any decisions made. To keep people informed and engaged as we move through the process, there will be opportunities, through town halls and public consultations, to be part of the discussion. We will keep you updated through this blog when those opportunities arise.

A new state of the art facility in Windsor is a huge positive, however I’m extremely concerned that not enough consideration will be given to site selection. The feasibility studies indicate that a “greenfield” site is required, one of 60 acres to accommodate expansion, parking and helicopter landing. Such a tall order will surely land this new facility outside of the city centre, possibility outside of the city boundaries itself.

This is a big problem. Such an institution does far more than provide medical services to the community, it serves as a magnet and draws development to the area. Should the development take place on the outskirts of town, development will follow. Such a facility will set a trend for the future of development in our community. If this hospital is built in a suburban setting or in the urban core, this will heavily influence how our city and the surrounding communities take shape in the decades to come.

With so much attention these days being given to curbing suburban sprawl and rejuvenating out city centres what will the result of closing 2 urban hospitals and replacing them with a remote suburban site? What tone will this set for the future of our region? We need to keep in mind that despite the reports a “greenfield site” is NOT a requirement to build a hospital, we don’t need to build on virgin land when so much space is available in the city centre. A good design team can make a new facility fit on smaller parcels and plan for expansion at the same time. Parking can be provided in abundance with parking structures and accommodations can be made for helicopter pads. We don’t need to sprawl. We should look to Detroit and Toronto as examples. Look at their state of the art facilities located within the heart of their cities and follow their good example.